Intro

N across Ashford Rd to St Martin's Field

SE along Ashford Rd and Church Approach to Assembly Rooms

St John's Priory Ashford Road This stone wall is all that remains of the Cistercian Priory of St John the Baptist, the site of one of New Romney's lost churches. Particularly noteworthy are the carved grotesques above the doorways. The priory, a religious foundation for men and women, was founded around the end of the 13th century. It must have owned much of the land between the High Street and North Street, and sent the profits earned from that land to its mother church at Pontigny in France. It was dissolved in 1415 and its property seized by Henry V. Eventually the land passed into local ownership. Links Cistercians From the Catholic Encyclopaedia Pontigny Abbey From the Catholic Encyclopaedia Pontigny Abbey Beloit College Art History site Pontigny Abbey Burgundy Tourism site Gargoyles ~ Grotesques Crystalinks page

Ruins of St John's Priory Grotesque on wall of St John's Priory

N across Ashford Rd to St Martin's Field

SE along Ashford Rd and Church Approach to Assembly Rooms